News

Volleyball29/05/2015

Poland and Russia rev up for ‘Match of the Week’ - live on YouTube

Lausanne, Switzerland, May 29, 2015 – Volleyball fans are in for a treat when world champions Poland take on Olympic champions Russia for the second time this week on Friday at 20.25 (local time) at the Ergo Arena in Gdansk for the FIVB Volleyball World League ‘Match of the Week’, live on YouTube.

The match will be streamed live with commentary provided by Tim Long, who has worked on FIVB events since 2014, including the Beach Volleyball Open in Manguang, South Africa.

It is the first time the Match of the Week will be streamed live on YouTube, with fans now able to access one of the highlights of the weekend through the website.

Russia are the current Olympic title holders, while Poland are the reigning champions of the world. During last year’s FIVB Volleyball Men's World Championship Poland 2014, the white and reds of Poland defeated their Russian rivals in a thrilling five-setter to advance to the semifinals. Russia had to settle for fifth place in the final standings.

In the history of all 17 Polish-Russian World League clashes, Poland have recorded four victories. Coach Andrei Voronkov’s players are no strangers to the Ergo Arena in Gdansk, however, which set the scene for Poland's first round matches in last year’s World Championship.

Saturday's match between Poland and Russia is the second Pool B match between the two teams in this season's edition of the World League. For information about the first match, click here.

The 'Match of the Week' allows broadcasters to televise for free one match from each week of the FIVB’s premier annual tournament for men. The specially selected match is available to the World League’s host broadcasters as well as other TV channels with the aim of spreading volleyball into regions where the sport has the potential to grow.

The six matches chosen for the 2015 season will be distributed by IMG to all major international networks and will also be live streamed on the FIVB’s social media channels. The matches will include English commentary and will be shown live and on demand on FIVB Web TV, geo-blocked only in countries where respective rights have been sold.

The first 'Match of the Week' will see current world champions Poland take on Russia (WR 2). Week 2 will see home team Brazil (WR 1) take on last year’s Group 2 winners Australia. In week three, fans will be able to watch 2014 World League winners USA (WR 5) play Poland (WR 3). That will be followed by an encounter between Italy and Brazil at the Foro Italico in Rome in week 4, Russia-USA in week 5 and Australia-Serbia in week 6.

FIVB.com provides extensive coverage of the premier annual competition for men’s national teams. Click here for live match text commentary, statistics, photographs and reports from every match in this season’s edition of the competition.